ANIMAL TORTURERS

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 6

ANIMAL TORTURERS

Callous Brutality

Penalty For Wanton Cruelty Should Fit The Crime

If the standard of our civilization were to be judged by the manner m which our courts deal with persons found guilty of cruelty, to animals it must perforce /be rated very low.

/CRUELTY to either animals or chilV^ dren, both equally helpless to retaliate or protect themselves, as a general rule, without incurring further ill-treatment, should surely be punished with the utmost rigor, for where it is not the outcome of callous neglect, it can be. attributed to nothing but a form of sheer brutality. ' "Very frequently the penalties meted out to those whd are wilfully ci'uel to infants are nothing short of humorous, if such a term can be used m that connection. And where animals are concerned the punishment is very far from meeting the crime. .._. i That a man who skins a rabbit alive s h o u ld escape with a fine is bad enough, but when another thing classed as a human being drags a dog after him on his motor-cycle •by a chain, so tearing its pads and otherwise injuring it that it dies, and is fined a paltry £6, it should give everybody with a drop of the milk of human kindness m their veins cause to think. What, it 'may be asked, is the S.P.C.A. doing. *" ■ , , It would be too sweeping a statement to make to say that they are callous to the brutality meted out to animals, but so long as inadequate fines are meted out to offenders of the type m question, it is inevitable that the majority of the public should retain an impression that the S.P.C.A. -is not a "live" body.

A concerted and sustained effort by the society is, what might be. expected, demanding- that such offences be met with a penalty which fits the crime. "If there, has been a move made •m this direction it has not come to our ears. .A bookmaker. may be fined £100,, or, a man who breaks the law by selling: one/gallon of liquor, when the law. lays it down that he may not sell less than two gallons, may be mulcted m a fine of £20, or even more, while for the crime of genuine destitution and old age a man may be condemned to the ■ ' ■ inside of a gaol for a month, or more. Yet a bi*ute m human form escapes with a/ small fine for ghastly cruelty to a dumb beast. The relative values under our existing legal; code certainly reflect no credit on a vaunted age of enlightenment. Stringent comment from the bench may sound all right, but it is extremely unlikely that it has any effect whatever upon a person who can perpetrate, such acts of cruelty. Gaol with hard labor is the only way m which to deal with those who are <v,nr.,i giiijt-r o f inhuman conduct to animals, and a move m this direction I.S .uiig overdue, while it is from the S.P.C.A. that some action is expected. While the present state of things exists, the ethics of our civilization are a sheer mocker y.